(rated R, 98 mins.)
If aliens could take on the form/look/memory of our departed loved ones, would that be such a bad thing? It would if it means the silly teaming of James “Titanic” Cameron and Steve “Oscar winning/funky” Soderbergh who directs and writes this bizarre space voyage with the same ‘out there’ attitude of his recent “Full Frontal.” Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) is a psychiatrist sent to Solaris, a planet that circles their spaceship (or vice versa) in the last hopes to rescue its scientists and discover Solaris’s economic viability. But, Kelvin can’t get a straight answer from Dr. Gordon (Viola Davis) or her twisted sidekick, Snow (Jeremy Davies). Who Kelvin does manage to get answers from is his deceased wife (Natascha McElhone) looking for answers herself. But, we never care about Kelvin, his loss, or his wife, partly because she doesn’t really exist and partly because we are expected to relate to him simply because he’s well, George Clooney. This thriller tries desperately to play out as a balancing act that aspires to be part “2001: A Space Odyssey” for its weird intelligence and part “Titanic” for its mushy love story, with that “life will go on” feeling. But like the aliens, we feel nothing for any of it. Mission aborted.
